I keep seeing people taking photos while driving on 280. Sometimes they send them to me.
Thanks Camilo!
And I have been collecting press reviews as they happen, below.
26 responses to “Tesla Sightings and Press Reactions to the Ultimate Car of the Year”
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We are taking delivery on of this exact model in Toronto! Can. not. wait.
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That is one fine boat, I sure hope it doesn’t turn out to be a Stanley Steamer, which was also a very fine boat…. Beautiful machine!
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@scleroplex…You have no idea!
@jurvetson…Good to hear. But when engineers develop a more flip-resistant car, biology develops a better Steve! It does look like it would be fun on curves, though.
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yes, with the battery weight below the wheel line, it handles unlike any car I have driven (thankfully =).
P.S. I may be a bit biased, so i have been collecting my favorite quotes from the press reviews:
"This is one amazing car. I mean, hard-core amazing."
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577504632…"What is the bottom line on the Tesla Model S?
It’s an eye-opener like the automotive world has never seen in its entire history."
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11665593/1/tesla-model-s-vs-compe...“The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it’s also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it’ll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk. By any measure, the Tesla Model S is a truly remarkable automobile
The mere fact the Tesla Model S exists at all is a testament to innovation and entrepreneurship, the very qualities that once made the American automobile industry the largest, richest, and most powerful in the world. That the 11 judges unanimously voted the first vehicle designed from the wheels up by a fledgling automaker the 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year should be cause for celebration. America can still make things. Great things.”
http://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/car/1301_2013_motor_trend_ca...“2013 Automobile of the Year: Tesla Model S
Actually, the Model S can blow away almost anything. "It’s the performance that won us over," admits editor-in-chief Jean Jennings. "The crazy speed builds silently and then pulls back the edges of your face. It had all of us endangering our licenses." Our Model S blasts to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. Even those numbers — positively absurd for a large sedan that uses not a lick of gasoline — fail to communicate how crazy it actually feels. "It’s alarming to jam the accelerator of such a big car and have it surge forward so quickly and so quietly"“Of course, practically every new car claims to be revolutionary. But this one actually feels like it is, to the point that many of us were reaching outside the automotive lexicon to describe it. "It reminds me of the first time I used an iPhone"
Through corners, the Model S exhibits impressive body control and vacuumlike grip”
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/awards/1301_2013_automobil...“The 2013 model year brought consumers a fleet of new machines, and the editors and writers of Yahoo! Autos tested over 100 new models this year… But all those appear to be automotive afterthoughts when compared to that futureshock of an electric sedan and Yahoo! Autos’ Car of the Year: the Tesla Model S.
It is the most significant automobile to land on our roads in many a moon.
The Tesla Model S is a fantastically engaging car to drive… Add all this up and it ensures the Tesla Model S becomes more than just our car of the year. It’s the car of the future.”
autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/tesla-model-2013-yahoo-au…"One-hundred years from now, the Smithsonian museum at our nation’s capitol will host a display of history’s most revolutionary automobiles… Most certainly included, among the dozen or so other pioneering automobiles, will be a 2012 Tesla Model S."
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/11/2012-tesla-model-s-first-driv..."People who like fast cars are sensualists. And screaming up through the gears of an Italian sports car—getting that flit and loft in the belly, tasting the saliva of speed—is a pleasurable and addictive sensation. They don’t call it dopamine for nothing. Unfortunately, in a car like a Lambo, other people can hear you being stupid for miles around. At full tilt, those cars are like civil-defense sirens, if civil-defense sirens alerted you to the presence of awful men in gold watches and track suits. It’s embarrassing. But in the dreamily quiet Tesla Model S, when you hit fast-forward, the film speeds up but the soundtrack doesn’t really get much louder… Compared with an internal-combustion sports car—quaint thing that it is now—this car slips silently as a dagger into triple-digit speed. You can cut traffic to bits in this thing and never draw the jealous ire of your fellow motorists."
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577504632…“We’ve driven almost every electric car made, and tested most, but the Tesla Model S comes as a revelation. This is a large, heavy, luxury car that’s wicked quick and agile, stretch-out roomy, and whisper quiet. And besides being a hoot to drive, this is the first electric car we’ve experienced that has a decent range”
news.consumerreports.org/cars/2012/11/video-tesla-model-s…“Our choice for CNET Tech Car of the Year goes to the 2012 Tesla Model S, a car that shows superb technology throughout
The Tesla Model S sets a new standard for cars of the 21st century by integrating cabin tech equal to anything from the consumer electronics industry and incorporating a long-range, powerful, and efficient electric drivetrain.”
reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-57559913-48/2012-car-tech-a…"the car’s 0-60-mph time was 3.9 seconds… We’re on the bleeding edge here, kids. Sedans of this performance caliber are as rare as netting Higgs bosons in the Large Hadron Collider… And were we to have measured those 0-60 mph times from the first twitch of accelerator movement instead of after the standard 1-foot roll-out, the Model S would be already off and away while the gas cars were still reacting to their suddenly opened throttles. It’s a startlingly instant shove into the seatback. Measured by our classical methods, the Model S P85 is now the fastest American sedan, and close to the fastest anywhere. And in the real-jousting that sometimes erupts on highways (you know what I’m talking about), it’s probably the quickest."
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/alternative/1208_2012_tesla_...“The automobile has not undergone a fundamental change in design or use since Henry Ford rolled out the Model T more than a century ago. At least that’s what I thought until I spent a week with the Tesla Model S. The 2012 Model S is simultaneously stylish, efficient, roomy, crazy fast, high-tech and all electric.
If the car’s appeal can be transferred to higher-volume models, the Model S could become the Model T of an approaching petroleum-free era.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/automobiles/autoreviews/one-bi...;“The quoted zero to 60 mph time of 4.4 seconds (3.9 if you go by Motor Trend‘s testing methodology) is almost irrelevant. It’s the point-and-squirt acceleration at nearly any speed that shocks and delights while devouring the road ahead. Nail the throttle at 40 mph and you’re up to 60, then 70 then 90 in less time than it takes to read this sentence. I don’t care how fast you read.
It is — for all intents and purposes — pure energy being laid to the ground with a rapidity that’s more roller-coaster freefall than four-wheeled family transport. And it’s more exhilarating than anything I’ve driven out of Sant’Agata, Stuttgart or even Maranello.More impressive than the sheer speed of a sedan this size is its level of grip and handling. This is largely attributable to the fact that the massive, four-inch-tall, 85-kWh battery pack is housed mere inches from the ground — it makes the Tesla not just a competent handler, but an architectural marvel that’s sure to cause furrowed brows and OCD-level head-scratching among German engineers.
…as a whole, the Model S feels and drives like the future. It’s a rolling testament to the potential of automotive innovation, and a massive leap forward”
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/09/tesla-model-s"In the area of automobile performance and refinement, the Tesla Model S is to other cars what a new iPhone 4S is to a Motorola StarTAC flip-phone from 1997. What is the bottom line on the Tesla Model S? It’s an eye-opener like the automotive world has never seen in its entire history."
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11665593/1/tesla-model-s-vs-compe..."Anyone whose foot has ever touched the [Model S’] pedal to be catapulted towards the horizon, anyone who has felt the effortlessness of the whisper-quiet e-engine, will have a problem with any conventionally motorized car thereafter. This is how drivers of the very first automobiles must have felt when encountering horse-drawn carriages.
The U.S. is back. But it is not GM, Ford, or Chrysler that demonstrates what a car of the future can look like, but a small manufacturer from California. Starting from nothing Tesla has created a gorgeous, technically convincing business sedan" Translated from: http://www.autobild.de/artikel/tesla-model-s-fahrbericht-3689332...
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And Road & Track just weighed in…
"The Model S isn’t just the most important car of the year. It’s the most important car America has made in an entire lifetime."
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and Consumer Reports:
“We have been testing cars at Consumer Reports for a very long time, but we have never seen anything quite like the Tesla Model S. This car performs better than anything we have ever tested before. Let me repeat that. Not just the best electric car, but the best car. It does just about everything really, really well.”
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and the results of Safety Testing
"Of all vehicles tested, including every major make and model approved for sale in the United States, the Model S set a new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants. While the Model S is a sedan, it also exceeded the safety score of all SUVs and minivans. This score takes into account the probability of injury from front, side, rear and rollover accidents.
The Model S was also substantially better in rollover risk, with the other top vehicles being approximately 50 percent worse. During testing at an independent facility, the Model S refused to turn over via the normal methods and special means were needed to induce the car to roll. The reason for such a good outcome is that the battery pack is mounted below the floor pan, providing a very low center of gravity, which simultaneously ensures exceptional handling and safety.
Of note, during validation of Model S roof crush protection at an independent commercial facility, the testing machine failed at just above 4 g’s. While the exact number is uncertain due to Model S breaking the testing machine, what this means is that at least four additional fully loaded Model S vehicles could be placed on top of an owner’s car without the roof caving in."
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the safety brand of the 80’s… Why did they crop the skyhook? =)
From the same article: "Compared to the Volvo S60, which is also 5-star rated in all categories, the Model S preserved 63.5 percent of driver residual space vs. 7.8 percent for the Volvo. Tesla achieved this outcome by nesting multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the side rail of the car that absorb the impact energy (a similar approach was used by the Apollo Lunar Lander) and transfer load to the rest of the vehicle. This causes the pole to be either sheared off or to stop the car before the pole hits an occupant."
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and Tesla was the most registered car in Norway last week… Tesla Model S nr. 1 i Norge!
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Oh, and how about customer satisfaction?
"Lots of people love their cars. But as we’ve consistently seen in our yearly owner-satisfaction ratings, the vehicles that inspire the strongest loyalty are ones that are fun to drive, deliver great fuel economy, are fashionably green, or envelop you in a high-tech, luxurious driving environment. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Tesla Model S all-electric luxury sports sedan, which provides all of those attributes in one car, topped our latest ratings with the highest satisfaction score we’ve seen in years: 99 out of 100." — Consumer Reports
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So many new reviews over the years, I could not keep up… but these were notable of late… Considering the competitive engineering effort focused on 0-60 times, it is quite remarkable to see an electric 4-door sedan can beat every gas-burning car, and the first electric SUV can beat any Lamborghini or McLaren: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-16/tesla-easter-e...
Heck when racing a carbon fiber Alfa Romeo 4C Spyder, you’d be better off towing it behind at Tesla SUV: electrek.co/2016/03/21/tesla-drag-race-alfa-romeo-vs-alfa…
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The “Tesla Model S P100D does it best, reaching 30, 40, 50, and 60 mph from a standstill more quickly than any other production vehicle we’ve ever tested, full stop. In our testing, no production car has ever cracked 2.3 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. But Tesla has” — http://www.motortrend.com/cars/tesla/model-s/2017/2017-tesla-mod...
Quarter mile record too:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/videos/a32456/tesla-mode... -
And now, the ultimate accolade from Motortrend:
TESLA MODEL S — ULTIMATE CAR OF THE YEAR"We are confident that, were we to summon all the judges and staff of the past 70 years, we would come to a rapid consensus: No vehicle we’ve awarded, be it Car of the Year, Import Car of the Year, SUV of the Year, or Truck of the Year, can equal the impact, performance, and engineering excellence that is our Ultimate Car of the Year winner, the 2013 Tesla Model S.
The Model S changed the way the world thinks not only about electric cars but also about cars in general. It remains clear there isn’t another vehicle created during our 70 years of existence that has had a truly comparable effect on automobiles, the automotive industry, and society at large.
There’s a difference between setting the stage and dominating it. Other automakers are scrambling to match Tesla’s technology, but Tesla still carries the first-mover advantage, and it continues to advance its leadership.
With the Model S, Tesla rethought many of the basic relationships between driver and vehicle. Seven years later, there still isn’t another car that doesn’t require a start button or key. The idea that a car would recognize your phone as you approached, unlock, boot up its computers, and be ready to operate and drive the moment you sat down and closed the door is still cutting-edge today.
The notion of replacing a vehicle’s nearly every physical control with a digital one then updating the underlying software with patches and imaginative new features—all while you sleep and free of charge—is still just being emulated now.
And still, the better part of a decade later, there isn’t an electric car that can travel as far as a Model S, nor is there a street-legal production car of any motivation that can beat a Ludicrous Model S to 60 mph, not even a Ferrari LaFerrari or Porsche 918. Meanwhile, Tesla remains among the front-runners of advanced driver assistance technology; Autopilot and Autosteer were both unveiled on the Model S.
Musk’s true vision was to electrify the world via an incontrovertibly earth-shattering product, not to create an automaking monolith. In seeing how Tesla’s rivals are rushing to imitate its technology—sincerely, not with lip service—it is clear his vision is close to being fulfilled."
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